Christopher Machesney (20) tweeted 'It's for the best' before he jumped to his death from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

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Christopher Machesney (20) tweeted 'It's for the best' before he jumped to his death from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

11.20.18, IONTBfb, Skyway Bridge: Expect delays northbound on the bridge due to police activity atop the Skyway. #MoveOver later: Delays now southbound as well. Vehicle left on top of the span. later: Confirmed jumper witnessed by road ranger. Mid aged white male

11.20.18, Anon, St pete, (male), Knew a girl who dated him. Apparently at 5 am he was pulled over at the top of the bridge for a few hours and no one stopped to check on him. His final tweet posted was "It's for the best." Body has yet to be found.

https://twitter.com/skywayjumpers
I was going to ask why there is a twitter account that follows the suicide deaths on the "Skyway Bridge"...
but here I am on a website that documents everyones deaths.

https://twitter.com/skywayjumpers
I was going to ask why there is a twitter account that follows the suicide deaths on the "Skyway Bridge"...
but here I am on a website that documents everyones deaths.

Also what does it mean "Body has yet to be found."???

Sometimes they don't ever find the bodies after people jump. I don't know if they get caught up in the currents and get pulled out to sea or they sink. It's not common, but it happens sometimes when people jump at the Skyway.

Sometimes they don't ever find the bodies after people jump. I don't know if they get caught up in the currents and get pulled out to sea or they sink. It's not common, but it happens sometimes when people jump at the Skyway.

I'm not surprised that happens - it's a huge expanse of water. It's giving me the horrors just thinking about swimming in it

Also, we need a vibrating shudder emoji for whenever I read a deep, deep water post

The text from Rob Rivard's stepson came at 5:23 one Sunday morning in November.

A 20-year-old student at Pasco-Hernando State College, Chris Machesney was excited about launching a modeling career. Rivard and his wife hadn't seen signs that Machesney was unhappy, but when Rivard read the text that morning, he knew it was meant to be a final goodbye.

Rivard frantically called his stepson's cell phone but never got an answer. He would learn later that a police officer had been alerted to a car parked at the top of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and pulled up to Machesney's Toyota Camry at 5:34 a.m.

By then, the young man was already gone.

"Within eight minutes of him texting me, he jumped," Rivard said.

Machesney was one of 18 people to die by suicide from the Skyway last year, a record number that surpassed the previous high mark of 13 set in 2003 and tied in 2017, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A 19th person who jumped last year survived the fall.

For years, the Florida Department of Transportation has rejected calls to install netting or fencing to deter jumpers from the iconic bridge. But this week, a department spokeswoman said officials are studying vertical barriers that could be installed along the bridge walls to deter suicide attempts.

In addition, the department is about to install new technology that will detect pedestrians and stopped cars to more quickly alert authorities to a potential jumper.

That's encouraging news for Rivard, who has been lobbying the state to take measures that might have saved his stepson.

"At that moment in their lives, they've made a decision," Rivard said. "You've got to make it hard for them so first responders can get there."

After his stepson Chris jumped from the Sunshine Skyway bridge a little more than a year ago, Rob Rivard decided to scatter his ashes from the iconic span.
Rivard resolved to wait, however, until the state built some sort of barrier on the bridge to prevent others from taking their own lives there. He contacted state officials and urged them to take action.

“I just felt if I waited, I could tell him, ‘Something positive came out of your death,’” said Rivard, of Tampa.

He could have that closure soon.

After years of pleas for a barrier to deter people from jumping some 200 feet to their deaths in Tampa Bay, the Florida Department of Transportation will construct steel netting along a roughly mile and a half stretch of the Skyway. The netting will extend vertically 8 feet from the top of the bridge’s concrete barriers, making it difficult for anyone to climb over them.

Construction is slated to begin early this summer and will take a few months.

The goal is to remove the Skyway from the ranks of the top four deadliest bridges in America, officials said. Despite measures such as increased law enforcement patrols and more surveillance cameras, the number of suicides each year has continued to trend upward. In 2018, a record 18 people died after jumping from the bridge.

“The top three bridges are either studying it or already doing something, so it was time to do this,” said Jim Jacobsen, district structures maintenance engineer for the Transportation Department. “In spite of our other activities, the numbers were still increasing in the last few years so we started to look at what other bridge owners are doing worldwide.”